Mattress



March 30 1926.

O. M. BURTON MATTRESS Filed August '7, 1922 Inventor 0250 MWV/ PatentedMar. 30, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OLIVERM. BURTON, OI CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. ASSIGNOR TO BURTON-DIXIE CORPORA-TION, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A. CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

MATTRESS.

Application filed August 7, 1922- Serial No. 580,059.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, OLIVER M. BURTON, acitizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cookand State of Illinois, have invented certaimnew and useful Improvementsin Mattresses, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to mattresses in which the upper and lower wallsof the tick or cover are connected by strips of ticking to formcompartments extending from edge to edge of the mattress and usuallycrosswise, and which compartments are separately filled or stuffed witha compressed body of cotton batting or like fibrous material. Suchmattresses will not widen or get out of shape readily but, as usuallyconstructed, each compartment is filled with a compressed bodycomprising a number of superposed layers of cotton batting or the likeand the filling is apt to pack down and present a hard flat surface. Thepresent invention seeks to remedy this defect and provide a compartmentmattress in which the filling is so arranged that it will not readilybecome hard and compact and so that the separate compartments willpresent attractive rounded surfaces at the opposite sides of themattress and better maintain the tautness of the tick.

The invention consists in the features of improvement hereinafter setforth, illustrated in the preferred form in the accompanying drawingsand more articularly pointed out in the appended claims.

On the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a mattress constructed in accordancewith my invention, and partially unfinished;

40 Fig. 2 an enlarged fragmentary sectional view on the line 2-2 of Fig.1

Fig. 3 a detail view showing the manner of preparing the fillingmaterial for the various compartments; and

Fig. 4 a perspective view of the filling material for a compartment,compressed in a holder ready to be inserted in a compartment of themattress.

Referring to the drawings, the reference numerals 1 and 2 represent thetop and bottom walls of the mattress which are composed of a suitablefabric, and 3 the end walls and 4 the side walls. Transverse partitionsor strips 5 of the fabric extend between the upper and lower walls ofthe mattress and from side to side thereof preferably in substantiallythe same manner as in the structure shown in Patent No. 1,021,971,granted April 2, 1912, to Benjamin D. Courts, these strips 5 beingstitched to the inner surfaces of the top and bottom walls 1 and 2respectively of the mattress. Preferably the strips 5'are so arrangedthat in the finished mattress, the width of each compartment issubstantially the same as the thickness of the mattress.

Each of the compartments is filled with a I charge of cotton batting orfelt, or like fibrous material, which is first formed into. a hat orlayer of substantially uniform thickness with practically all of thefiber disposed in or parallel to the plane of the hat or layer. Acontinuous length or strip of the felted cotton or fiber bat is thenformed into a spirally wound roll of substantially cylindrical crosssection and of a length equal to the width of the mattress, so that eachroll is adapted to be inserted in and fill one of the compartments. Eachcompartment charge is thus formed into a solid spirally wound rollhaving convolutions extending fromthe center to the periphery thereofwith the fibers of its convolutions in direct contact, and these rollsare considerably larger in cross sectional area than the comartments andare first radially compressed 0th vertically and horizontally so thatwhen inserted, they will expand sufiiciently to properly fill thecompartments. Any suitable means may be employed for compressing therolls and holding them compressed as they are inserted, as for example,a two part holder like that shown in the Courts patent above referredto. This holder comprises trough-like pans 6 and 7 that fit together toform a long tubular housing of rectangular cross section in which theroll of fillin material is sufliciently compressed and hel as shown inFig. 4, so that the filling together with the enclosing holder may bereadily inserted in the compartment, and the holder then removed onesection at a time leaving the filling in position.

One of the side flaps forming the wall 4 of the mattress is left open,as shown in Fig. 1, so that thevarious compartments may be filled, andthis flap is then sewed in position to close the ends of thecompartments or charging spaces. The charging rolls are retained inposition side by sideby the walls of the casing and the division stripsand are thus confined and vertically and laterally compressed; butotherwise, the rolls are free to expand to compactly fill all portionsof the compartments. The tendency of each spirally wound roll of cottonbatting is to expand uniformly in all radial directions and assume itsoriginal cylmdrrcal form. But, since it is confined by the casing wallsand division strips and the adjacent rolls, to some extent againstvertical expansion and to a greater extent against lateral expansion,each roll conforms to and compactly fills the substantially rectangularsection of one of the compartments, lncludmg the corners thereof. Also,because of the radial expansive tendency and the arrangement of thefibers in the spirally wound cotton bats and the manner in which theyare com ressed and confined in position, the ten ency of the separatecharges to work away from one another is overcome, the t ck ismaintained taut and presents attractive rounded surfaces upon oppositesides of the mattress, and the latter is very resilient, maintains itsshape and resiliency in use, and will not readily become fiat and hard.

As the central portion of the mattress ordinarily sustains a greaterportion of the weight of the occupant than the ends and hence has agreater tendency to become packed, the middle compartments are morecompactly filled than those at the ends 1n order to retain uniformity ofthickness of the mattress when in use. The compartments are of the samesize and larger quantities of filling material are placed in the centralcompartments and progressively smaller quantities in the othercompartments. This difierence in the quantity of filling material issecured by making the layers or bats uniform in thickness but ofdifferent lengths, as shown at 8, 9 and 10 in Fig. 3, so that they formrolls of progressively lar er size, as shown at 11, 12 and 13 respectivey.

In practice I have found it advisable to graduate the quantity ofmaterial in the compartments from the middle of the mat-- tress to bothends, and preferably construct mate the mattress with twelvecompartments of a uniform size, as shown in Fig. 1, filling each of thefour intermediate compartments 14 with rolls 13 of filling material,each consisting of approximately ten (10) per cent of the entire quantitof filling material in the mattress, and filing the next twocompartments 15 at each side of the series of intermediate compartmentswith rolls 12 of filling material, eachconsisting of approximents 1 6 ateach end of the mattress" with eight 8) per cent of the total amount offilling material, and the two compart' rolls 11 of fillingmaterial, each.comprising approximately seven 57) per cent of the total amount of thefil ing material, and as the compartments are all of the same size, itwill be understood that the compartments 14 are filled somewhat morecompactly than the compartments 15, and the compartments 15 somewhatmore compactly than the end compartments 16.

While I have shown and described my invention in' a preferred form, I amaware that various changes and modifications may be'made withoutdeparting from the principles of my invention, the scope of which is tobe determined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A mattress consisting of a fabric casing havin spaced upper and lowerwalls connecte at intervals by vertical division strips to form a row ofnarrow, transverse compartments extending throughout the length.

thereof, and separate filling charges in the compartments each,comprising a bat of felted cotton spirally wound into a solidcylindrical roll of sufiicient cross section to fill compactly one ofsaid compartments when compressed and confined therein, each chargingroll being confined in position between the upper and lower casing wallsand the adjacent division strips and vertically and laterally compressedthereby and by the adjacent rolls into substantially square crosssection with flattened sides and rounded upper and lower surfaces,substantially as described.

2. A mattress consisting of a fabric casing having spaced upper andlower walls connected at intervals by vertical division strips to form arow of narrow, transverse compartments extending throughout the lengththereof, and separate solid filling charges in the compartmentscomprising bats of felted cotton spirally wound into substantiallycylindrical rolls eachof sulficient cross section to compactly fill thecross section of one of said compartments when compressed and confinedtherein and having the fibers of its superposed convolutions in directcontact, each charging roll being confined in position between the upperand lower casing walls and the adjacent division strips and verticallyand laterally compressed thereby and by the adjacent rolls intosubstantially rectangular section with flattened sides and rounded upperand lower surfaces, substantially as described.

3. A mattress consistin of a fabric casing having spaced upper an lowerwalls connected at intervals, uniformly spaced throughout the lengththereof, by vertical division strips to orm a row of narrow, transversecompartments, and separate solid fillingcharges in the compartmentscomprising bats of felted cotton spirally wound fibers of theirsuperposed convolutions in direct contact, the charging rolls beingconfined in position between the upper and lower casing Walls and theadjacent division strips and being so relatively proportioned that theare vertically and laterally compressed y the casing walls and stripsand by the adjacent charges into substantially rectangularcross section"with flattened sides 19 and outwardly rounded faces atthe upper 4; Amattress as set forth in claim 2 in which I the lengths of bats offelted cotton are proportioned to progressively increase the density ofthe separatecharges from the ends to thecentral portion of the mattress,substantiallyas described.

if OLIVER MoBURTON.

and lower surfaces of eachcompartment, substantially'as described.

